The bill for the umbrella is high, this year too and even more so than last summer. After +10% in 2022 and +5% in 2023, here comes an additional +4% today. It means that in three years an umbrella and two deckchairs have become a luxury on many beaches. The Altroconsumo survey is clear: 226 euros are spent on average per week. And when we tried to book, what did we discover? That in several cases reservations are not accepted (especially in Salento and Sardinia) but “first come, first served” applies, although this does not lead to any savings. In this case, in fact, the daytime cost is around 30 euros, with peaks of 80/90 euros per day depending on the establishment and the queue requested (but with the provision of beach towels often!). And in the rest of the cases the answer is: “In August we are already full”.
The Altroconsumo survey collected the rates of 211 beach establishments in 10 tourist destinations, from 4 to 10 August. Looking at the ten locations taken as an example (Lignano, Rimini, Senigallia, Viareggio, Palinuro, Alassio, Gallipoli, Alghero, Taormina and Giardini Naxos, Anzio) and considering the first four rows, an average increase of 4% emerges compared to 2023. Alassio turns out to be the most expensive. Here you spend 340 euros on average per week, 392 euros to stay facing the sea, (56 euros per day). The cheapest location is Senigallia, where 145 euros are “enough” for a week (just over 20 euros per day) and 155 to have the first row. On average, being in front of everyone costs 226 euros for the week of August. It drops to 210 euros for the second row, 199 for the third and 186 euros from the fourth onwards. Therefore, 20 to 32 euros per day are needed.
Compared to 2023? No increase in Lignano, Taormina and Giardini Naxos. Instead +2% in Alghero and Gallipoli. In Alassio, Anzio and Palinuro the increase is 3/4% and in Viareggio even 5%. The maximum increase in prices is that of Senigallia (+8%) which however is the least expensive beach with its 145 euros per week. Between Alassio and Senigallia (between 340 euros and 145 euros) there are the others. In Rimini you need 150 euros, in Lignano 153, in Anzio 168. And then, going up: in Palinuro 174 euros, in Taormina and Giardini Naxos 194, in Viareggio 209, in Alghero 220 and in Gallipoli 275 euros.
Along the same lines is the monitoring of Codacons which speaks of an average expenditure of 32/35 euros per day, but with peaks of 90 euros in Gallipoli and 120 euros in some areas of Sardinia. An increase ranging from 3 to 5% according to Codacons, which also photographed the situation of exclusive beaches. Here you can easily exceed 500 euros a day, up to 700 euros. For a gazebo with two seats in the front row in the ‘Exclusive’ area of the Cinque Vele Beach Club in Marina di Pescoluse (Le) you need 696 euros per day in August. In Forte dei Marmi you spend 600 euros for an Arab tent at the Twiga; 515 euros for a hut in the front row on the beach of the Hotel Excelsior on the Lido of Venice; 500 euros at Nikki Beach Costa Smeralda.
The expensive umbrella is not just a matter of August. June also saw a surge in prices. The average cost for an umbrella and two sunbeds on a public holiday is 21.67 euros, an increase of 4.6% compared to 2023. The average expense for a week in June is 137.90 euros (Ircaf study centre, the Consumption, Environment and Training Research Institute). Looking at the establishments on the Adriatic and Ionian coasts, the average expenditure per day is 17.89 euros (107.93 weekly), i.e. +5.5% compared to last summer. Moving to the Tyrrhenian and Ligurian coasts the daily average is 25.64 euros (169.50 euros per week). And this is June, in August the numbers fly even more.
